For some, the piano is the instrument of instruments. Here are ten good reasons why.

detail cover art compilation Dada et la Musique (2005, Muza)

40-minute mix with works by Charlemagne Palestine, Graeme Revell, Henry Cowell, Johanna Magdalena Beyer and others, composed between 1912 and 2017.

Featured cover art: The Piano Music Of Henry Cowell


Obscure Music – Paving the Way for Ambient (1975-78)

With his label Obscure, Brian Eno started a series with experimental listening music in 1975. The artists involved left previous approaches towards making music behind, worked with new technologies or took inspiration from ancient traditions. 71 minutes with Gavin Bryars, Harold Budd, Max Eastley, Michael Nyman and others.

Johanna Magdalena Beyer – Sonatina in C: III. Andante

late piano work by the German-American composer, who also pioneered electronic music (1943, New World Records)

Henry Cowell – Aeolian Harp

one of the first piano pieces to feature extended techniques; Henry Cowell’s method of the string-piano is played by sweeping and plucking the strings inside the instrument (1923, Smithsonian Folkways)

Cornelius Cardew – Father Murphy

based on a song of the Irish uprising of 1798 (1974, Cramps Records)

Cyril Scott – Poppies

composition linked to a poem (1912, Muza)

Egidija Medekšaitė – Textile 1

investigating the connection between textile patterns and musical structures (2017, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre)

Graeme Revell – Countess Saladine

interpreting Adolf Wölfli’s mandala piece from 1911 (1986, Mute)

David Shea – Trance

piano work based on methods of composing electronically (2016, Room40)

Michael Harrison – Theme Of The Garden Of Avalon (2/3)

played on the Harmonic Piano in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York (1990, New Albion)

Charlemagne Palestine – One + Two + Three Fifths in the Rhythm Three Against Two, For Piano – One Fifth

variation of tones, intervals, overtones, and rhythms elicited from a Bösendorfer piano (1973, Alga Marghen)

Sun Ra – Haverford Impromptu #1

free jazz pioneer playing a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano (1980, Enterplanetary Koncepts)

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